By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
This is the fifth in a series profiling this year's inductees for the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame, which will be posted every week at baylorbears.com.
 
For all her individual success as a three-time singles All-American and 2012 doubles All-American with Ema Burgic, maybe the defining moment for Nina Secerbegovic came on March 16, 2010, when the Baylor women's tennis team earned the program's first-ever No. 1 national ranking. 
 
"I still vividly remember the moment," she said. "We were practicing indoors, and someone came over and showed us their cell phone and the No. 1 ranking. And we all started jumping for joy. I remember all the joy we had in that moment, because we achieved something amazing for the first time in Baylor's history of women's tennis. 
 
"And then later, when we lost to Stanford (in the NCAA quarterfinals), of course you're sad about it and there's disappointment. But in the end, I think you still remember that that's the year you reached No. 1 as a team. We all remember that moment more than we remember the loss to Stanford."
 
Secerbegovic, part of the 2024 Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame Class that will be inducted Nov. 1, was part of the "golden era" of Baylor women's tennis. The Bears swept the Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles in three-straight years (2009-11), made it at least to the Round of 16 in each of her four seasons and had an overall team record of 211-20. 
 
"We can definitely say it was a golden era, both when Lenka (Broosova) was here and when I was the next three years," Secerbegovic said of her former teammate and current Baylor assistant coach, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2020. 
 
"We were really competing every single season for the championship, and we were always that close to winning (the NCAA championship). Unfortunately, during my time, it didn't happen. But it's going to happen eventually. And I'm a Baylor Bear forever. So, when it happens, it's going to be something that I will definitely be proud of."
 
Although she had a career-high ranking of 923^rd in the world and reached the semifinals of a $10,000 futures tournament in Croatia, Nina was unsure about whether to continue playing tennis until she got a call from future Baylor teammate Jelena Stanivuk. She was a mid-year addition as a first-semester freshman in January 2009. 
 
"For me to actually find someone that can understand what I'm going through and can push me to be better, to accomplish something great," said Nina, a native of Tuzla, Bosnia & Herzegovina, "my life turned around completely when I came to Baylor. So, I'm really grateful for both (Stanivuk) and Joey (Scrivano) for bringing me to Baylor."
 
Her goal was to come to the United States, "because that's where all the great players are," but it wasn't an easy decision for Nina  because "you have to leave your country, you have to leave your parents, your family, your friends." 
 
"But I knew this was something good for me."
 
A five-time national champion in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Nina made an immediate impact on a 27-5 team in 2009 that lost to Notre Dame in the NCAA quarterfinals. Finishing the season on a 21-match winning streak, she was a combined 20-1 at Nos. 5 and 6 singles and 16-8 in doubles with Kasia Siwosz. 
 
Moving up to No. 2 singles and doubles the next year, Nina won a team-high 43 singles matches and reached the NCAA quarterfinals in singles to earn her first All-America honors. Earning the program's first No. 1 ranking nationally, Scrivano was able to blend a team that had players from Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Croatia, Canada and Bosnia. 
 
"I think that was the best part," Nina said. "Everyone knew about Baylor and all these different cultures that are meshed together into this one team that's just almost unbeatable. It worked out perfectly because we functioned quite well, I must say. So many people from different countries came together, and we all had the same mindset. Tennis is basically an individual sport, but when you play college tennis, it's a team sport and you have to think like a team."
 
Seeded No. 1 as well, the Bears advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to eventual national champion Stanford, 4-2, with the wins coming from Secerbegovic and Stanivuk at Nos. 2 and 5 singles, respectively. 
 
"For us, it was a culmination of different matches, different tournaments, different visits and journeys and all that," Nina said. "It's not just one tournament that would recognize us as champions, but it was all of that together that made us become No. 1 in the rankings."
 
The next season, an unranked Secerbegovic made it to the singles quarterfinals again before losing a three-setter to Stacey Tan of Stanford, earning her second-straight All-America honor. She also helped the Bears advance to the NCAA semifinals for just the second time, getting knocked out again by the defending national champion Cardinal. 
 
While the team posted its fewest wins (25) and had its shortest run in the NCAA Tournament with a Round of 16 loss to USC, Secerbegovic capped off her career with All-America honors in singles and doubles in 2012. 
 
She reached the Round of 16 in singles for the third-straight year and then teamed with Burgic for a 7-5, 6-2 first-round upset of No. 1 seeds Sofie Oyen and Allie Will of Florida before falling in the doubles quarterfinals to UCLA's Pamela Montez and Courtney Dolehide in a three-setter. 
 
Secerbegovic said the transition from the team tournament to individual singles and doubles "wasn't that difficult for me in particular."
 
"I always went in with the same mindset in every single match," she said, "because when you're on the court, you're still by yourself. You can't just pass the ball to someone else so they can take care of everything. Even in the individual NCAA championships, the mindset wasn't that difficult, because you know you're playing for your own team. It's not just you that's going to celebrate, the whole team is going to celebrate with you."
 
Because of foot and wrist injuries, Nina wasn't able to return to the pro circuit, turning her attention instead to her academics. She graduated from Baylor with a business degree in 2012 and then got her MBA from Istanbul Aydin University in Turkey in 2017. She is currently a project manager and employer branding specialist with the HTECH Group. 
 
"I'm not even sure how to describe the feeling of being inducted into the Hall of Fame," she said. "Even though it was totally unexpected, it's a wonderful feeling because someone appreciated and recognized all the effort I put in. Being inducted into the Baylor Hall of Fame is something that I will keep remembering for the rest of my life."
 
Joining Secerbegovic in the 2024 Baylor Hall of Fame class are Brittney Griner and Odyssey Sims from women's basketball, Ekpe Udoh from men's basketball, baseball's Michael Griffin, softball's Whitney Canion Reichenstein, football's Mark Cochran and Ronnie Allen from track and field. 

The Hall of Fame banquet will be held at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 1 in the Grand Ballroom of the Hurd Welcome Center on the Baylor University campus. Tickets are $50 per person, with table sponsorships available for $600 (green level) or $800 (gold level). 
 
Registration is available at 2024 Baylor Hall of Fame Banquet.